Our new sister site, MormonChart.com just published the Book of Mormon Genealogy Chart. It is huge chart listing all the people mentioned in the Book of Mormon and how they relate to one another. We also host several other charts there, and even a few custom Mormon Wordles as well.
Faithful Friends
President Henry B. Eyring
First Presidency Message – July 2010
President Henry B. Eyring
President Eyring points out the Savior calls those who have been faithful in their service to him “friends” (D&C 84). We can become his friend by serving others.
President Eyring tells us that over the next few days we will each have opportunities to be the Savior’s friend. If we are alert over the next few days, we will see others carrying heavy burdens, or have old friends called to mind we have not seen in years. We need to reach out to these people and lighten their burdens.
Our Savior will bless us to feel what they feel. As we serve them, our love for them will grow. That will give us courage to reach out again to others.
President Eyring also recounted how old friends had reached out to him in the past in his time of need across many miles and years when only Heavenly Father could have told them of his burdens.
Its a great feeling to reach out to old friends in their time of need, and soothing when they do the same for us. May we all follow his counsel and be especially alert this month for these opportunities to grow and to become the Savior’s friends.
A Mormon Wordle of his message is below:
Faithful Friends Mormon Wordle
Wordle.net recently released some new color combinations, among them was Indian Earth, the earthy colors used above. We think it does a nice job of representing the warmth of old friends.
Canaries With Gray on Their Wings
President Thomas S. Monson
First Presidency Message – June 2010
President Thomas S. Monson
President Monson talks of when he was a young bishop, a widow in his ward passed away and left three canaries. Instructions had been left for the two with pretty yellow wings to be given to her friends, but the third, with its yellow wings marred by gray was to be given to President Monson. Her note asked him to give it a home, it is not the prettiest, but its song is the best.
He likened the widow to the canary, “She was not blessed with beauty, gifted with poise, or honored by posterity”, but her “song” (meaning her life), blessed the lives of others and strengthened them in their time of need.
President Monson told us the world is full of canaries with grey on their wings. Only a few have learned to sing. We must develop our capacity to face trouble with courage by gaining a true perspective of who we are (sons and daughters of our heavenly father) so that we too can have a good “song” and bless the lives of others.
A Mormon Wordle of the message is below, along with a description of our efforts in producing it.
Canaries With Gray on Their Wings Mormon Wordle
We spent longer trying to Mormon Wordle this message than any previous post to date. We were trying to overlay it on the photo of some parakeets I took a few years ago below.
Parakeets
We tried to use a white on black image version of the Mormon Wordle above, extract the white text, and overlay it onto the parakeet image. After exhausting the selection tools in Photoshop Elements and Inkscape and never being able to cleanly select the white text, we gave up in the second week of July and posted our efforts.
One of the basic wordle shapes resembles a footprint. We chose it to promote the concept of us walking in the footsteps of the lady who walked in the footsteps of the canary with gray on its wings. Interestingly, on close inspection, you may note the lime green parakeet closest to the camera is actually just a plastic bird. Many of us are like that, we have not reached our potential and are just sitting there like a bump on a log. May we all emulate its song in our lives by lifting the lives of those around us.
President Thomas S. Monson
Closing Remarks
General Conference April 2010
Text Source: May 2010 Ensign
President Thomas S. Monson
Once again, President Monson gave us a great uplifting closing message along with some guidance. He thanked those who participated in the conference, said he had seldom heard so good of sermons with so few words, reminded us the messages would be reprinted in the May issues of the Liahona and Ensign, and urged us to study, ponder, and apply those messages.
He used seaman’s terms to describe how the world around us, “seems to have slipped from its moorings of safety and drifted from the harbor of peace.” Similar to the previous closing address, he mentioned how permissiveness, immorality, pornography, dishonesty and a host of other ills cause many to be tossed about on the seas. President Monson urged us to look to the lighthouse of the Lord, thanked us for our prayers in his behalf and in behalf of the General Authorities, and invoked a blessing upon us that the messages and spirit of this conference might find an expression in all that we do.
Although the closing messages are usually pretty brief, I always look forward to them. This time I especially enjoyed his use of sea fairing terms which fit so well with the rescuing message that is being strongly promoted across the church. His choice of terms is especially relevant when you consider the rescue painting that is currently being used to help energize our rescuing efforts.
We wordled his closing message in similar format to that we used on his October 2009 Conference closing message to allow some comparisons to be made.
President Monson's Closing Remarks April 2010 General Conference Wordle
Seeking and Receiving Personal Revelation
Visiting Teaching Message – April 2010
This LDS visit teaching message is composed of brief quotes from four leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We even more briefly summarize their thoughts below, then created a Mormon Wordle to visually express their discussion of Seeking and Receiving Personal Revelation.
Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Individuals prepare to receive revelation just like the prophets do. Study the scriptures, fast, pray and build your faith if you are seeking revelation. Elder Hales says Faith is the key, just as it was for Joseph Smith when he asked in faith.
President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
We need to unlock the veil and the key is on our side, it is prayer. But it is not only prayer. We have to work for it by studying the matter out in our mind, then asking if we are right and receiving a burning in our bosom.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Revelation normally comes by words or thoughts communicated to our minds, by sudden enlightenment, by positive or negative feelings about courses of action under study, or even by inspiring performances , such as the performing arts.
Silvia H. Allred, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency
The temple is a house of learning. Our understanding of the temple increases as we return with an attitude of learning and contemplation. “Let us enjoy the spiritual strength and the revelation we receive as we attend the temple regularly.”
We hope the Mormon Wordle below will further inspire more discussion of this message on Personal Revelation.
Seeking and Receiving Personal Revelation wordle
We took one liberty with the text of this visiting teaching message before we wordled it. We removed the phrase “Quorum of the Twelve Apostles”. It was used several times to identify the position in the Church held by President Boyd K. Packer, Elder Robert D. Hales, and Elder Dallin H. Oaks. These three great men are wonderful sources to learn about personal revelation from, and their position in the Church both signifies and requires that they are well versed on this topic. We only removed the phrase because it was very long, and being used several times, it overpowered and dominated this Mormon Wordle. We left in the names of the apostles, we just removed the phrase, “Quorum of the Twelve Apostles”. When studying the message provided in the Ensign, please note that it is based upon comments by at least three members of the “Quorum of the Twelve Apostles”.
We created this particular wordle solely using the tool at wordle.net. The colors were selected using the custom color palette feature provided there. It came out very nice, so we elected to not further modify it.
Receiving Personal Revelation is often misspelled as Recieving Personal Revelation.
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